Excl: BeStylish CEO Shailen Amin exits company; Abhishek Lal promoted as chief executive

Shailen Amin, co-founder and CEO of Smile Group's online shoe store BeStylish.com, has exited the company to pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities. Although his LinkedIn profile still mentions him as the CEO, Amin has not been with the firm for a few months now, the company told Techcircle.in. Meanwhile, Abhishek Lal, co-founder and director (merchandise), has been promoted as the chief executive officer at BeStylish. Commenting on his appointment, Lal said, "Our entire business model has changed and the new business model focuses on supply aggregation and technology, which happen to be my core strengths. My previous position does not exist in the new structure."

Lal is the other co-founder of BeStylish and has been with the firm since its inception. Earlier, he was the buying & logistics head at Intersport Middle East, a position that he held for over four years.

Gurgaon-based group company Smile Sales Pvt Ltd launched BeStylish in 2011 and also roped in Lal and Amin (the then CFO at the market research firm Millward Brown, a WPP Group company) as the co-founders of the new venture. Amin was responsible for Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific at Millward Brown. At that time, the store was offering international, high street and regular shoe brands including Woodland, Adidas, Buckaroo, Nike, Adams, Provogue, Franco Leone, PlayBoy, ID and Numero Uno.

Earlier this week, we wrote about BeStylish pivoting from an e-tailer to a distribution platform that helps other e-commerce ventures, as well as offline retailers. As part of the first leg of business restructuring, it has moved from an inventory-led e-tailing model to a marketplace for shoes, slippers and sandals. It means the company is no longer holding inventory and is sourcing products directly from offline manufacturers to sell it on the site. It is also supplying products to other e-commerce companies and online marketplaces such as eBay, Tradus and Naaptol, as well as offline retailers.

The pivot was completed in May this year, probably at the same time when Amin exited the company. Last year, the company also appointed Neha Kant as its digital marketing director and Rajat Shikhar as its product head.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)